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Defensive back Joe Burnett, a three-year Eskimo before the team released him on April 2, will see the Labour Day match from a different bench. The Calgary Stampeders signed him on April 10 and the Florida native was suddenly never happier to be in enemy territory.

The Eskimos made another trade Thursday, sending the conditional seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft acquired from the Blue Bombers for quarterback Matt Nichols to the Tiger-Cats for offensive lineman Brian Simmons.

Eskimos general manager Ed Hervey moves veteran quarterback Matt Nichols to the QB-needy Winnipeg Blue Bombers to alleviate logjam at the position in Edmonton with starting quarterback Mike Reilly almost ready to return to the lineup after blowing out his knee in season opener.

As he took a seat in the back of a cab in downtown Montreal, the door shut next to Len Rhodes and he tensed. The CEO and president of the Edmonton Eskimos was dressed down this morning, the suit he normally wears hanging in his hotel room where his girlfriend Maureen had given him a concerned look and wished him luck as he walked out the door. His light blue button-down shirt was tucked into blue jeans, a small stack of notepad paper covered in his handwriting neatly folded and stashed into his pockets, just in case he’d need it.

He claims to have never cursed, but that didn’t stop James Franklin from hurling F (Franklin) bombs all over the field at Commonwealth Stadium on Friday night. The clean-cut quarterback keeps it PG at all times, but his play in his first Canadian Football League start was all grown up from kickoff until the final seconds ticked off of the clock, an impressive, much-needed 38-15 win over the Toronto Argonauts.

Trespassers, thieves and other sketchy criminal types of Edmonton take heed: Ryan King is watching, waiting to put you in your place. The Eskimos long-snapper is becoming something of a superhero for his team this season. His latest act of bravery — thwarting a bike theft at Commonwealth Stadium on Tuesday — earned him a Good Samaritan award from the City of Edmonton.

Ricky Ray was 22 back in 2002 when he made his first start at quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos in which he looked nothing like a raw rookie. Ray completed 21 of 28 passes for 277 yards and four touchdowns, two of which were hauled in by Ed Hervey, now the Eskimos general manager.

The Edmonton Eskimos are looking to step on the gas pedal on Friday night at Commonwealth Stadium and make the painful memory of last week’s 49-20 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats become a speck in the rear-view mirror.

Chad Kackert has spent almost two years wondering, searching for an answer that was proving to be as elusive as he used to be on the football field. The Toronto Argonauts running back was the Grey Cup’s most valuable player in 2012 and was putting together a decent season in 2013 when his playing life in the Canadian Football League was suspended with a brutal injury before the East Division final.

Thaddeus Coleman, all six-foot-eight, 320 pounds of him, was making his habitually unobtrusive exit from practice when he was told his number had been sharped onto “the board,” meaning reporters wanted to talk to him. His offensive line colleagues began teasing him theatrically, as football players will do.

A football coach’s life is often spent managing the biggest nuisances in his world. Penalties gnawed away at Edmonton Eskimos head coach Chris Jones last season, his first year on the job. He brought game officials to practice, hoping education would be a deterrent, but wasn’t happy with the results.

Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive tackle Randy Richards will pay for his high tackle on Calgary Stampeders returner Tim Brown. The CFL announced Wednesday that Richards had been fined the maximum amount under the collective bargaining agreement for the dangerous tackle on Brown. Richards was disqualified for the clothes-line tackle and the Riders were assessed 25 yards for the penalty.

There’s the big thing — running an offence, making plays, taking care of the ball and scoring touchdowns — that all quarterbacks are expected to do, but the little things carry a lot of weight, too. Leading into Friday’s game against the Toronto Argonauts, where James Franklin will get his first Canadian Football League start for the Edmonton Eskimos, the rookie is showing that he has no problem with those little things.

When he was a star athlete at Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Mill Woods, Cleyon Laing watched the Edmonton Eskimos and — like many other kids in the city — dreamed of what it would sound like to hear the crowd cheer for him at Commonwealth Stadium. The 24-year-old Toronto Argonauts defensive lineman is guaranteed to get a reaction from the fans during Friday’s Canadian Football League game, but it probably won’t be the one in his dreams.

How far James Franklin’s career stretches with the Edmonton Eskimos or in the Canadian Football League, the quarterback might always have to tip his hat to his old college teammate. When Franklin was headed to an open tryout with the Eskimos earlier this year, he let Kendial Lawrence know that they might be teammates again. The two played together with the University of Missouri Tigers from 2010-12, so Lawrence knew what Franklin was capable of doing.

James Franklin isn’t perfect, but he has played well enough to earn his first Canadian Football League start. The Edmonton Eskimos announced Monday that their rookie quarterback will direct the offence against the Toronto Argonauts on Friday at Commonwealth Stadium.

Derel Walker hails from Hillsboro, Texas, but the 24-year-old rookie has seemingly come out of nowhere to lead the Edmonton Eskimos in receiving yards the last two games. The six-foot-two, 185-pound receiver out of Texas A&M University caught a game-high 10 passes for 125 yards in his Canadian Football League debut on Aug. 13 against the Montreal Alouettes and then hauled in 14 passes for 183 yards in his second game last Friday against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Earlier this week, Edmonton Eskimos defensive end Odell Willis said that Friday’s game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats would reveal what kind of team he’s on. “This little stretch is going to show if we’re an average team or a great team,” he said.

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